May 2016

The AP Calculus year is almost over. The exam is a few days away. I hope you kids do well.

They say, that being a teacher, no matter how well you do your job you have to start over again next fall. I guess I can’t argue with that. AP Calculus teachers are no different, but next year will be a little different from this year. The College Board has published a new AP Calculus AB and BCCourse and Exam Description(CED) for the 2016 – 17 school year. (A previous publication called the Framework has been available for some time; the CED includes the Framework and additional information.)

I’m planning four blog posts on the CED that will be posted later this month (you’re entitled to a few days to relax after the exam).

The first will discuss the new Concept Outline from the CED. This is the list of topics tested on the AB and BC exams. This is what you should teach and includes the (very) few new topics that have been added to the previous course description.

The next will be about the Mathematical Practices for AP Calculus (MPACs). These are not topics to be included, but rather the MPACs “capture important aspects of the work that mathematicians engage in, at the level of competence expected of AP Calculus students” (p. 8). These apply to many if not all of the topics in the course and with some modifications to doing mathematics at every level.

The third post will look at the Instructional Approaches: the broader skills you can use, representative instructional strategies, and other suggestions suitable for AP Calculus courses.

The final post will give you a way to organize and plan all this. This is new and I think you’ll like what I’ve put together to help you.